Document Suggests Abbas’s Desire to Resume Israeli Talks

CAIRO — President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority is so eager to return to peace talks with the Israelis that he may soften his demand that Israel’s president publicly pledge to halt construction of new settlements on Palestinian land before such negotiations can resume.

The shift in the Palestinian leader’s stance was laid out in a draft set of talking points prepared for Mr. Abbas by his negotiating team in advance of his private meeting on Thursday withPresident Obama.

“He can pledge to you secretly that he will stop settlement activities during the period of negotiations,” read one talking point, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuof Israel. “(He does not have to announce it.)”

The draft talking points were in an electronic document obtained by The New York Times. Its author was listed as NAD-Wajeeha. The initials are that of the authority’s Negotiations Affairs Department and are used in internal communications by the chief Palestinian negotiator,Saeb Erekat, along with the name of his assistant, Wajeeha.

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President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority will meet with President Obama on Thursday.Credit
Grigory Dukor/Associated Press

Mr. Erekat said in the e-mail Wednesday night that Mr. Abbas’s talking points for the meeting had not been completed. But another senior Palestinian official said they were Mr. Abbas’s planned arguments, and others familiar with talking points for previous meetings said the document looked authentic and its text bore marks of Mr. Erekat’s style.

Khaled Elgindy, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who was previously part of the Palestinian negotiating team, would not comment on the document’s authenticity, but said he was would not be surprised if Mr. Abbas was eager to return to the negotiating table. “Negotiations are the only thing he has,” Mr. Elgindy said.

Another talking point in the document, which spells or transliterates Mr. Netanyahu’s name two different ways, suggest that Mr. Abbas should implore Mr. Obama to persuade Mr. Netanhyahu to say that Israel’s 1967 borders could be the starting point for negotiations, as Mr. Obama has suggested.

“I hope you can get Prime Minister Netanyahoo to say (two states on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps). He never said it,” reads one talking point. “I hope one day he will put his Map on the table as I did.”

Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday repeated his refusal to stop settlements or negotiate from the 1967 borders, calling both unacceptable “preconditions” for talks.

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Mr. Abbas may even suggest dissolving the Palestinian Authority and returning the West Bank to direct Israeli control if the two sides cannot make progress toward an independent Palestinian state, the talking points say. While the settlements continue eroding the authority’s territory, the documents notes, economic stagnation and low tax revenue has left the authority unable to pay its employees.

“I am not threatening, I am sharing a fact with you,” the talking points suggest Mr. Abbas tell Mr. Obama. “If this situation continues I will be forced to ask Prime Minister Netenyahoo to resume his responsibilities.”

Mr. Abbas also appears set to reassure Mr. Obama that the Palestinian Authority will not use its new United Nations status to seek to press claims against Israel in the International Criminal Court unless Israel begins building a settlement in the sensitive area known as E1, central to the envisioned Palestinian state.

“We together agree on what to do and not do, on the principle that no one’s interest is affected provided that Israel does not begin the construction of E1,” the talking points say.

“No one benefits more from the resumption of the peace process than Palestinians,” the talking points suggest Mr. Abbas should tell Mr. Obama. “And no one loses more in its absence.”

Correction: March 23, 2013

An article on Thursday about a set of draft talking points prepared for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, which suggested that in his meeting with President Obama, Mr. Abbas express a strong desire to resume peace talks with Israel, misidentified the office held by the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. He is the country’s prime minister — not its president, the position currently held by Shimon Peres.

Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

A version of this article appears in print on March 21, 2013, on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Abbas Shows Desire to Resume Israel Talks. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe